Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

On how normal people let atrocities happen.
Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative—an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the twentieth century.

Reviews

A disturbing account of Nazi war crimes from a time before the Holocaust had crystallized into neat narratives. The primary focus of the book is the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the only Nazi to be tried by a Jewish court. Hannah Arendt digs deep into Eichmann’s psychology, asking questions that flesh out the cardboard concept we have today of what it was like in Nazi Europe, and the inhuman flaws intrinsic to the functioning of any State. Definitely a read worth pondering in these cyclical times.